The Toledo Rockets and the Akron Zips meet in college basketball action from the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Friday afternoon.
The Toledo Rockets will look to build on their 70-68 win over Buffalo in their last game. Ryan Rollins leads the Rockets in scoring with 19.2 PPG along with a team-high 6.1 RPG and 3.7 APG while JT Shumate has 15.7 PPG and 6.1 RPG this season. Setric Millner Jr. has 15 PPG with 5.8 RPG and RayJ Dennis has 12.7 PPG with 5.8 RPG and a team-high 4.2 APG this season. As a team, Toledo is averaging 81.5 PPG on 48.5% shooting from the field, 36.5% from three and 76.9% from the foul line while allowing 68.4 PPG on 39.7% shooting from the field and 30.8% from three this season.
The Akron Zips will try to add to a 72-71 win over Central Michigan last time out. Ali Ali leads the Zips in scoring with 14.1 PPG and 2.7 APG while Enrique Freeman has 13 PPG and a team-high 11 RPG to lead the Zips on the glass with a double-double per game. Xavier Castaneda has 12.9 PPG with 2.3 APG and Bryan Trimble also has 10.4 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Akron up to this point in the season. As a team, Akron is averaging 71.1 PPG on 46% shooting from the field, 34.8% from three and 68% from the foul line while allowing 62.9 PPG on 42.2% shooting from the field and 34.2% from three this season.
Toledo is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 neutral site games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record.
I get the allure of points with the Zips after taking down a fairly decent Buffalo team on Thursday. However, while Toledo didn’t look great at all against CMU, the reality is that the Rockets are the better team here and they took down Akron in convincing fashion earlier on in the year. Toledo’s offense should replicate some of that success, and on a back-to-back after such an emotional game, I don’t know if Akron will keep pace. Give me the Rockets here.